Rally Finland Day Two

Sébastien Loeb has maintained his hold on the Rally Finland leaderboard but the Frenchman has fought hard to keep team-mate Mikko Hirvonen at bay. At the end of a long day of competition, the battling team-mates are split by just five seconds with Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala further adrift in third position.

Today’s route took in nine stages, three of which were repeated, before the crews returned to Jyväskylä for the closing run around the 2.06 kilometre super special stage. The 133.82 competitive kilometres have taken their toll on some of the leading crews, but the fight at the top of the leaderboard is expected to rage throughout Saturday’s final and longest day of competition.

Loeb started the day with a 7.3 second advantage and was on the pace from the outset. Winning three of the day’s forestry stages, the Frenchman’s lead has however been narrowed, largely due to Hirvonen’s four fastest times. Uncharacteristically, Loeb’s Citroën DS3 also suffered with differential problems for two stages, albeit little time appeared to be lost. While the two Citroën crews are neck and neck at the head of the leaderboard, Latvala and Petter Solberg remain within striking distance but have struggled to regain time lost earlier in the day. Solberg won one of the forestry stages for Ford and has climbed from sixth, but the team-mates are struggling to consistently match the pace of the Citroëns.

Behind them, Mads Ostberg is a fine fifth but has not been comfortable with the balance of the car throughout the day. The Norwegian was in a great battle with Thierry Neuville until the Belgian had a slow roll in the final long stage. Ott Tänak therefore moved into sixth, but the Estonian has been forced to drive with caution after a puncture left him with no spare tyres. Finns Jari Ketomaa and Matti Rantanen hold seventh and eighth with Martin Prokop and Ken Block – in his last WRC outing this season – rounding off the top 10. Chris Atkinson, standing in for Olympic medal winner Nasser Al-Attiyah, suffered in the first stage with intercom problems, and then the Australian misheard a pace note later this afternoon which resulted in him going off the road. Having lost 17 minutes, he then managed to get to the end of the stage but was forced to retire.